Salt Lake City police kill man after he grabs officer’s baton and beats him with it, witness says
Salt Lake City UT Sept 30 2017 One person was dead from gunshots fired by police and two Salt Lake City police officers were injured — not by gunshots — near 300 South and 500 East on Thursday afternoon, police said.
The man was shot in the parking lot of a Maverik gas station, police said.
At least one officer was injured after the man who was shot got hold of the officer’s baton and hit him on the head with it, according to a witness.
The witness, who was shaken by the episode and asked not to be named, said a customer had noticed that the man was walking down 500 East, with the officer walking behind him. Someone had reported the man trespassing down the street, according to Salt Lake City police Detective Robert Ungricht.
At the gas station, the man grabbed the officer’s baton and hit him with it, the witness said.
“He was beating up the officer with his own baton,” he said.
Two other officers arrived and tried to stop the man’s attack, and that is when the man was shot.
The trespassing call came in at 3:56 p.m., according to police.
An employee at the Healing Mountain Massage School, 363 S. 500 East, said Friday that the trespassing call came from there, but declined to say more without getting permission from the police to talk.
Ungricht confirmed that one man was dead from gunshots.
Two police officers were taken to local hospitals for treatment, he said. Ungricht confirmed that the two officers were injured during a “fight” with the man, but he did not detail how they had been hurt. The two officers were not injured by gunfire, he said. They were expected to survive.
West Valley City Police will handle the investigation, Ungricht said.
500 East was closed between 200 South and 400 South while police investigated.
On Aug. 13, Salt Lake City police shot and killed 50-year-old Patrick Harmon after he allegedly pulled a weapon on police officers who were trying to arrest him on an outstanding felony warrant. The shooting occurred at about 10:20 p.m. at 1002 S. State Street.
On May 30, Roman Jade Carrillo, 18, of Bountiful, was fatally wounded during an exchange of gunfire with two Salt Lake City police officers — an episode that followed an unrelated shooting in downtown Salt Lake City and a high-speed car chase that ended in Tooele County.
